Древняя Русь и Скандинавия: Избранные труды

If any inhabitant of the land of Rus’ thinks to violate this amity, may such of these transgressors as have adopted the Christian faith incur condign punishment from Almighty God in the shape of damnation and destruction forevermore;

May whosoever of our compatriots, Prince or common, baptized or unbaptized, who does so violate them (the oaths. – E. M), have no succor from God, but may he be slave in this life and in the life to come, and may he perish by his own arms…;

If any of the princes or any Russian subject, whether Christian or non-Christian, violates the terms of this instrument, he shall merit death by his own weapons, and be accursed of God and of Perun because he violated his oath…[1408].

The compilers of the treaty took pains to assure accurate maintenance of the terms by both pagans and Christians. They formulated oaths and specified punishments for breaking the oaths in details. The provisions for Christians and non-Christians are well balanced with probably a somewhat slight stress on the Christian beliefs, which can be due to the Christianity of the compilers of the treaty.

The treaty also mentions the church dedicated to St. Elias where the Christian Rus’ was to take the oath. That is the earliest evidence of churches in Rus’. The church is usually supposed to have been located in Kiev in the trade and artisan quarters outside the fortified part on the Kievan hills[1409]. In Old Russian the church is defined by the term sobornaja that much later, with the establishment of the church organization, would designate a cathedral. The English translation «the Cathedral» bases on this meaning of the word. It seems, however, highly problematic if there could have been a cathedral proprio nomine in Kiev at that time which presupposes the existence of other (parish) churches subordinated to the cathedral. It is much more probable that it was the only church existing in Kiev at that moment and it was perceived as the main church, i. e. the Cathedral from the point of view of the translator of the treaties in the late eleventh century[1410]. If this was the case, its location in the commercial quarters of the city was only natural. On the one hand, merchants were most liable to accept new cultural impulses, and the first appearance of a church in a heathen country is often connected with trade centers[1411]. On the other hand, merchants played an important role in the conclusion of the treaty of 944 – twenty six of them are named in the preamble to the treaty as probable witnesses and some of them must have been Christians.